I first started watching her in dramas in 2004 (I was 9, but somehow I can still remember) in a show called My Mighty-in-laws where she was still young, inexperienced, and honestly not very good at acting. Her Chinese pronunciation was terrible despite debuting in Taiwan as a singer. But I thought that she was quite pretty.
In 2005, she acted in a few more Channel 8 dramas, and gained her first leading role in A Promise for Tomorrow. At that time, she had already become my favourite Channel 8 actress...because she was pretty hah. What does a 10 year old know about acting?
In 2007, she got her first breakthrough as a policewoman An Xiao Qian in Metamorphosis. My fondness for her grew, and her popularity also exploded.
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| An Xiao Qian in Metamorphosis |
2008 wasn't a particularly good year for Rui En as she got into lots of controversy for rejecting a role with a rape scene. But she took on the role of Zhang Yu Hang, an AIDS patient, in the show By My Side, where she won me over as a fan completely. Her acting had improved by leaps & bounds (albeit the Chinese pronunciation that was still a bit strange), and her emotional scenes left me in tears. I was so enraged when she wasn't nominated for Best Actress for this role. Up till today, even though she has gone on to play many many more roles, Zhang Yu Hang remains my favourite.
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| Shipshipship! Haha but they were really sweet in that show. |
She also released her second album, United Nations, which I got as a present, and managed to get it autographed by Rui En through some connections. It is one of my most precious belongings.
One particular interview is called 'Inside the Outsider', a Straits Times article that can be found online, was really insightful to her as a person as she shared her background, namely her parents' divorce, her past where she had gone astray (smoking, drinking and obsessed with fame), and how she pulled herself back.
Her struggles and how firmly she sticks to her beliefs inspired me to just live life as myself. We really don't have to care about what people think. No kissing and intimate scenes is really hard for a female actress, but she has still managed to get meaty roles. Being unafraid to show her personality, with little regard for PR, got her into lots of trouble and controversy at first. It still does now - just look at the huge hooha over her 'black face' at Star Awards 2015 Show 1. But it was also this trait of hers that allowed to gain many fans, especially the younger generation who is all about being yourself. And step by step, struggle by struggle, she managed to ascend to the top of the media industry in Singapore. She is the only Singaporean actress right now that has both critical acclaim (2 Star Awards Best Actress awards and 1 Asian TV Awards Best Actress) and a huge fanbase that can make her trend on twitter whenever they want.
Another of her quirks is that she absolutely refuses to have social media. She did set up a Facebook account in 2008 for an 8days 'experiment' and to promote her album, but she shut it down soon after that. I am not a big fan of social media either. I created my FB account just to 'friend' her on FB although I did use it for real later, but Twitter and Instagram accounts are just for following my idols who have them, and not for any social interactions with my real-life friends.
Despite her absence on social media, her presence can still be felt through her fans. Any picture with Rui En that any other celebrity posts on Instagram will gain an immense number of likes (way more than usual).
I think that her acting is wayyy better than other Singaporean actresses (especially since 2008) that if the judges were to really judge fairly, she would win the Best Actress every year and no one will want to watch Star Awards anymore haha.
She has her fortes though, and that is the cold, slightly bitchy or even evil roles, and the roles that require lots of emotional acting, which she is AMAZING in. (She can cry in 5seconds!) She can do bubbly, happy roles, but she doesn't shine as much as when she does the cold roles. Her fans love her in those cold, bitchy roles too haha.
Other than Zhang Yu Hang, I also love her roles as Cheng Chu Ning in Sudden, Hu Xiao Man in Unriddle 1 & 2, An Xiao Qian in Metamorphosis, Qiu Xue Qing in the last few episodes of Against The Tide and Ye Si Qi in With You. Other than Si Qi, the rest were all quite cold and bitchy. Chu Ning is probably the least cold but the bitchiest.
Xue Qing started off as an angel but turned into a devil at the end.
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| Devil Xue Qing makes her first direct kill. |
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| Crazy Xue Qing. |
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| More crazy Xue Qing. |
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| At the press conference for With You. She can be pretty cute when she wants to. |
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| Winning the Best Actress during Star Awards 2011. A long awaited, fully deserved award. |
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| With Elvin Ng in Unriddle 2. |
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| Swag, no? |
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| Going on stage to receive her Best Actress award in Star Awards 2013 |
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| Her onscreen partner Elvin Ng congratulating her for the win. Why is this significant? Because Rui En doesn't allow just anyone, especially guys, to hug her! |
I also enjoyed her other roles such as Zhang Luoyun, the slightly bitchy teacher in My School Daze, Zhang Ya Le, the clueless princess in A Tale of Two Cities and Han Yong Yong, the poor-thing, bullied daughter in Joys of Life, among many others. But these left less of an impression than the above few that were BA worthy.
In particular, her performance as Chu Ning was so criminally underrated. Not even a nomination! Rui En managed to capture the snarky, bitchy parts of her, the romantic, lovely part of her in her romance with Qi Liang and the eventual tragic part of her (first, her boyfriend becomes wheelchair-bound, then she loses her memory) all equally well to create a character that I could believe actually exists. And Sudden was partly filmed in Tasmania, which explains why I was so desperate to go to Tasmania and visit some of the places she did like Salamanca Market and Cataract Gorge.
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| Rui En (wrapped with way too many layers) and her onscreen partner Romeo at Salamanca Market. |
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| A rare selca from Rui En on the Alexandra Suspension Bridge at Cataract Gorge, Launceston. (I was there too!!) |
I used to be a member of RBKD before they changed the rules such that all members have to attend certain gatherings. Like my not very sociable idol, I don't enjoy social gatherings. Furthermore, I have been in school all these years where I am almost always busy studying for one thing or another that I simply don't have the time to attend these things. It's even worse now that I'm in med school.
I have still managed to see her though - 3 times. The first time was on 22Nov2008, when she went to Suntec City Convention Center to promote her album. I dragged my friend along with me and heard her sing Qing Wa! She was suuuper cute trying to dance to it. This is the lousy picture I took when she was there: (Pardon the terrible quality. It was 2008. No technologically advanced smartphones!)
After that, my craze died down a tiny bit so I never went for her events again (and she never had much anyway) until 2013. It was A Levels year but I still went for 2 of her roadshows in which she was promoting L'Oreal as their newly appointed ambassador.
This was at Ngee Ann City on 1June2013:
Some highlights were when the host was fangirling and said 'Rui En, you're very pretty!' in mandarin and RE was so shy haha! The host also tried to trick Rui En and said that you're supposed to use the 4th finger for the whole face and RE was like 'I only use it for my eyes....if use it for the entire face, isn't it very slow??' So cute haha! And the host was like 'Yeah Rui En is very smart!' LOL!
After the thing (which last about 40min) ended, she left and took the escalator up. It was a blessing in disguise that I was at the back because the security opened the barrier and I managed to follow her up the escalator to the drop off/pick up point at Level 2 and finally managed to see her full body! AND I WAS 3M AWAY FROM HER. And then her van swiftly came in and she left. She kept waving to fans while on the escalator and walking to the pick up point - so sweet!
And this at Compass Point on 15June2013:
The mic wasn't working very well so everything was really soft and I couldn't hear her very well :( I also kept getting blocked because I was in the center where the person manning the RBKD camera was. But when the person moves, I had a great view. I was wearing my white school uniform, which stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of black worn by the fanclub. I thought the games were pretty lame so I was quite bored, but I could see her head bobbing everywhere (since her body was mostly blocked) which was very cute. The highlight of this part was when people who spent a certain exorbitant amount on L'Oreal products would get to take a photo with her, and a mum brought a toddler up and RUI EN PICKED THE TODDLER UP. Albeit in a very fail and hilarious manner. It was so funny even Rui En herself was dying of laughter hahaha.
After that, I thought she was going to leave so I made my way to the side in preparation to follow her to the car but she stood on stage taking pictures with the staff for another 5min....and then she came out and she was SO CLOSE! SUPER PRETTYY!!! I tried to take a picture but only caught the security guard haha.
The pick up point this time was on the same level so the chase was a lot shorter, and more people followed. At the pick up point, she stood outside for a few seconds before getting into her van. And then she waved to everyone standing outside the van!!! So yup, that was the last time I saw her live. I've had chances to see her after that (more L'Oreal roadshows) but my craze died down a tiny bit again, and I've been really busy with med school.
She's really REALLY gorgeous.
Also, contrary to her 'ice princess' image, she is actually quite a nice, normal person in real life. That image has been so vastly exaggerated by the media. In a way, it benefited her because an image allows you to be remembered by the audience. But it makes many get the wrong impression of her. She's really quite funny in some interviews, behind-the-scenes and NG clips that can be found on Youtube. She has also loosened up in recent years a little, and despite refusing to set up an Instagram account, she will still initiate selfies with her costars. Just watch the interview newbie Carrie Wong did regarding Rui En about her antics haha.
One more thing I love about her is that she's smart. She went to Raffles JC, which is also my alma mater. I never went to check the yearbooks for her picture though haha. Then she specialised in Banking & Finance at NTU Business School, a most random choice of uni course.
She has been a huge inspiration for me throughout these years, especially during my formative years in Sec 1-2 (when I was so crazy I would either beg my classmates for articles of her or print out those I couldn't get). I'm not sure how she is really like in real life, but I don't really want to know either as no one is perfect and the nearly perfect picture I have of her is almost sure to be damaged. To me, it doesn't matter if that image is false because it's what I aim to be, and I believe in aiming for perfection.
Thank you, Rui En. For being a worthy role model for me and so many other lost and lonely teens. Thank you for giving me the courage to be unafraid to be myself, to speak my mind and to not care about what others think. Because "if you're everything to everybody, you end up being nothing to yourself" - Rui En.
(credits to respective owners for all images)